NATURE CONNECTION

In harmony with the Dao,

The sky is clear and spacious,

The earth is solid and full,

All creatures flourish together,

Content with the way they are,

Endlessly repeating themselves,

Endlessly renewed.

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When man interferes with the Dao,

The sky becomes filthy,

The earth becomes depleted,

The equilibrium crumbles,

Creatures become extinct.

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Dao De Jing, Lao Zi

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We are living in very interesting times and the acceleration of technological advances require close inspection and cautious monitoring. We know that technology can improve our lives but in other ways it disconnects us from experiencing certain aspects of ourselves and the world around us. Modern Lifestyle has allowed us to reduce the physical strain experienced from hard physical labour, transferring the work load to the office environment where one is required to sit in front of a computer doing a large amount of mental work. This situation isn't necessarily better than the latter. The features of this type of daily routine can often result in it's own unique set of imbalances which consists of:

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- Blocked leg channels (From too much sitting)

- Increase in body weight (Lack of activity)

- Poor circulation (Lack of activity, blocked channels)

- Too much mental activity (send too much energy to the head, creates an imbalance between upper and lower body)

- Shoulder tension (Blocks channels)

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Overall, this situation results in disharmony and through practices such as Qigong one can learn how to bring one's self back to a state of harmony and cancel out the situations(s) in one's life which cause imbalance and disharmony. It is truly an artful skill to adjust one's own state using energy work, much like an enginneer fine-tuning the most complex yet beautifully and elegantly designed, living-breathing machine.

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Harmony is one's natural and powerful state of from which well-being, happiness and creativity flourish. This allows one to feel connected to others and nature and see the connection between things. Some ways which modern humans become disconnected is as follows:

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- Living away from nature in cities

- Becoming disconnected from our bodies through lack of physical activity and too much mental activity

- Using electronic devices and indulging in too much entertainment such as movies, video games and music. This has the effect of numbing the senses and diminishing one's natural sensitivity to the more subtle aspects of life; the world of subtle energies.

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Taoist practices such as Qigong gives one the opportunity to reconnect, harmonise and increase one's personal power. Additionally, a harmonious person brings their harmonious state to every situation they are in and thus make a positive impact on the people and places around them. The opposite is also true: unhappy, chaotic people create hardship and spread discontent to others around them and have a negative impact on events and situations. We can make a positive change in society: It starts with each individual and what they contribute from within: Their internal state.